CPJ seeks comprehensive inquiry in Clarín tax raid

New York, September 11, 2009—Two hundred tax agents raided the offices of Argentina’s largest daily, Clarín, on Wednesday after the paper ran a cover story alleging that a government agency improperly granted a farm subsidy, the local press said. The action, which Clarín decried as government intimidation, has intensified a fierce debate between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration and Argentina’s largest media conglomerate over a proposed overhaul of broadcasting laws.

Tax inspectors stormed the offices of the Buenos Aires-based
daily Clarín in early afternoon,
press reports said. Even as agents were seizing documentation, the director of
the government tax agency, Ricardo Echegaray, called Clarín Editor Ricardo Kirschbaum to say he hadn’t ordered the
inspection and that it was being carried out in error, the newspaper reported.

Echegaray later sent Clarín
a letter
apologizing for the action, and saying that he had ordered an investigation,
the press reported. Clarín reported
that two high-ranking agency officials, including the deputy director, were
fired on Wednesday. But Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández insisted in a radio
interview today that the tax raid was not an act of intimidation.

“Argentine authorities must get to the bottom of this and
find out who was responsible,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ senior program
coordinator for the Americas.
“President Kirchner must publicly disavow any government efforts to intimidate
critics of her administration, or opponents of the media bill.”

The raid came on the heels of a Claríncover
story alleging that a government farm trade agency granted a 10 million
peso (US$2.6 million) subsidy to an agricultural company without the proper
authorization. Echegaray also supervises the farm trade agency.

Claríndescribed
the inspection as an “escalation of aggressive and intimidating acts” that have
taken place in the midst of a debate on a Kirchner-backed media reform bill. In
August, the newspaper’s offices in Rosario
were vandalized. The same month, posters and graffiti attacking Clarín and its executives appeared in
several Buenos Aires’
locations.

On August 27, Kirchner brought a media bill to Congress that,
according to the government, would diversify the public airwaves. Among other
things, the bill would divide the airwaves in three parts: A third of broadcast
concessions would be allocated to private companies, a third to state broadcasters;
and a third to non-for-profit organizations. The bill would limit the number of
licenses a company can hold, and it would set quotas for national programming.

Many Argentine journalists and free press advocates acknowledge
a need to overhaul broadcasting regulations enacted in 1980, during military
rule, but have concerns about this bill.

A CPJ analysis found provisions in the bill that could restrict
freedom of expression, particularly an article that gives the president authority
to appoint most members of a new broadcast regulatory body. “We believe that
the regulator must be autonomous and independent to ensure that broadcast
concessions are not subjected to political interference,” said Lauría. “This
week’s tax raid increases our concern about possible government intimidation
and pressure.”

Local journalists are concerned the administration is urging
approval of the bill before the new Congress takes office on December 10. Kirchner
allies currently hold a majority in both chambers of the legislature, a
position they will lose when the new Congress convenes. “We call on authorities
to postpone the debate of the bill until Congress reconvenes on December 10.
That will promote a more pluralistic and diverse discussion,” Lauría said.

Analysts believe the media bill is aimed at weakening the
Clarín Group; new regulations would force the media conglomerate to sell some
of its assets. Clarín has strongly
opposed the bill. Clarín Group owns
newspapers, television and radio outlets, as well as cable and Internet
providers companies.